The Next Big Thing

Been a hectic few days, kicking off last Thursday evening with Mr Iain Shaw venturing over to the east coast for his fist show there. It went well and would have gone even better if the chattering buggers that bumped their gums all though the set had been muzzled.

Friday night saw The Primevals and Charles Randolph Rivers Slim Rhythm Revue tear up McChuills as part of Oxjam. When anyone tries to tell me how the JJR are some hot shit then I’ll refer them in the direction of the former because those fauxsters are NOT in the same league. Sadly never made it to Buckfest but I imagine that it went well? Sometimes it’s just not possible to do everything just like good guys don't always wear white.

Sunday was the UK premiere of Herschell Gordon Lewis – Godfather of Gore at GFT. Part of a Cult Labs day. It’s really great and with the man himself, Dave Friedman (This is a Something Weird production), John Waters and even Joe Bob Briggs in there too, well I don’t think that anyone with a penchant for the man’s work could be disappointed. It was much scarier outside the movie theatre because Rangers and Celtic were playing and Bigot Central was going full swing. I managed to pretty much body swerve all that apart from a smattering of them on the train home.



And last night... Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. I hadn’t seen any version of the band since they opened for Graham Parker in (I believe) 1977. Hardly seems possible but in my recent tour of the past, it seemed like time to revisit this particular boardwalk. Particularly as they were playing a proper theatre, The HMV Picturehouse in Edinburgh not the Renfrew Ferry.

Strange that I end up scoring a ticket outside from the Rev. Ralph MacGillivray. Although we correspond through facebook, it had been many years since we’d met so that was a welcome coincidence. Being a bit knackered, I had pondered the option of sitting in the balcony but the upstairs wasn’t open. Haven’t experienced the sound up there and it was going to be a long set.

The opening band was awful. A terrible mix of overbearing confidence and the curse of competence. Not a good combo. They seemed very pleased with themselves and the audience largely encouraged them. This was the first time that I’ve been to a show in recent times that I definitely wasn’t the oldest person there. And besides, SJ doesn’t need an opening act and this was no warm up.

It’s a measure of a show’s calibre when 2 and a quarter hours goes by in a flash. I won’t say that there were a couple of moments where I didn’t flag, but that was more down to my tiredness. At the very high points, like “Talk To Me” and “I Don’t Want To Go Home”, it was like standing on the corner of exhilarating and heartbreaking. Those horns were not set on stun. The show was so far ahead of Springsteen’s recent performance in Glasgow that I can hardly quantify the difference.

I guess this is what you might call entertainment... things are in a bit of a fankle around here. No idea if or when normal service might be resumed.